The great maxim, which is the basis of all our civil and political institutions, is, that "all men are created equal," and that they are equally entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."...But in order that each individual may pursue and secure the highest degree of happiness within his reach...a system of laws must be established, which sustain certain relations and dependencies in social and civil life....There must be the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, teacher and pupil, employer and employed, each involving the relative duties of subordination. The superior in certain particulars is to direct, and the inferior is to yield obedience. Society could never go forward, harmoniously, nor could any craft or profession be successfully pursued, unless these superior and subordinate relations be instituted and sustained....

In this Country, it is established, by both opinion and by practice, that women have an equal interest in all social and civil concerns....But in order to secure her the more firmly in all these privileges, it is decided, that, in the domestic relation, she take a subordinate station, and that, in civil and political concerns, her interests be intrusted to the other sex, without her taking any part in voting, or in making and administering laws....

It...is in America, alone, that women are raised to an equality with the other sex; and that, both in theory and practice, their interests are regarded as of equal value. They are made subordinate in station, only where a regard to their best interests demands it....In matters pertaining to the education of their children, in the selection and support of a clergyman, in all benevolent enterprises, and in all questions relating to morals or manners, they have a superior influence....

The success of democratic institutions...depends upon the intellectual and moral character of the mass of the people. If they are intelligent and virtuous, democracy is a blessing; but if they are ignorant and wicked, it is only a curse....The formation of the moral and intellectual character of the young is committed mainly to the female hand. The mother writes the character of the future man; the sister bends the fibers that hereafter are the forest tree; the wife sways the heart, whose energies may turn for good or for evil the destinies of a nation. Let the women of a country be made virtuous and intelligent, and the men will certainly be the same. The proper education of a man decides the welfare of an individual; but educate a woman, and the interests of a whole family are secured....

To American women, more than to any others on earth, is committed the exalted privilege of extending over the world those blessed influences, that are to renovate degraded man....The woman who is rearing a family of children; the woman who labors in the schoolroom; the woman who, in her retired chamber, earns, with her needle, the mite to contribute for the intellectual and moral elevation of her country; even the humble domestic, whose example and influence may be moulding and forming young minds, while her faithful services sustain a prosperous domestic state;--each and all may be cheered by the consciousness, that they are agents in accomplishing the greatest work that ever was committed to human responsibility.

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about? That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place every where. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place, and ar’n’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have plowed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me--and ar’n’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man (when I could get it), and bear the lash as well--and ar’n’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children and seen them most all sold off into slavery, and when I cried out with a mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard--and ar’n’t I a woman? Then they talk about this thing in the head--what [is] this they call it? ["Intellect," whispered someone near.] That’s it honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as man, cause Christ wasn’t a woman. Where did your Christ come from?...From God and a woman. Man had nothing to do with him....If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, all alone, these together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again, and now they are asking to do it, the men better let them.

1. According to Beecher, what is woman’s profession? How does she uphold the doctrine of separate spheres?

2. Why, according to Beecher, is it proper that in a democracy women have no political rights? Why is the subordination of the wife to the husband necessary in society? Are her arguments convincing?

3. In what ways does Beecher argue that the sexes are equal in America? How is it in women’s best interest to be subordinate in some areas? In what areas of life are they superior?

4. How does the style of Sojourner Truth’s speech differ from the excerpt by Beecher? What factors contribute to the difference?

5. What is Truth’s major point? How does she link the cause of antislavery and women’s rights?

6. How do the social backgrounds of both speakers affect their positions?